Case Telia Finland: Protecting our digital infrastructure

Telia is an international information and communications technology company that has been building data communications solutions for almost 200 years.

Today, data centers are a vital part of our infrastructure and integral to the 5G network architecture. They are to networks what harbors are for ships and airports are for aeroplanes.

In June 2018, Telia Helsinki Data Center was opened. As the largest, most modern and safest facility for data in the Nordics, it provides top level systems for security, safety and power and has multiple connections to Telia’s global network that hosts almost 40 percent of the daily global internet traffic.

The data center has space for nearly 200,000 servers and a capacity of 5000 racks. Data center racks are steel and electronic frameworks that are designed to house servers, networking devices, cables and other computing equipment.

With over 30,000 m2 already available, the equipment space is scalable according to customer needs ranging from a quarter of a data cabinet to an entire customer-specific data hall. It was vital for Telia to choose a locking solution for the cabinets and halls that is equally scalable.

iLOQ S50 is a secure and fully digital locking solution specially designed for the needs of facilities such as data centers.

Utilizing NFC technology, iLOQ S50 runs through a mobile app on a smartphone. It offers the high level of security that Telia demands, together with efficient over-the-air access sharing that eases operating logistics and reduces costs associated with mechanical and battery-powered electronic locks and access control systems.

Telia faces the challenge of managing numerous sites, high numbers of personnel and vast amounts of locks. This has traditionally meant that a huge number of keys are in constant circulation. With iLOQ S50, access rights for the racks at the data center can be shared and managed with one user-friendly, secure software program.

The security risks related to physical keys have been eliminated. iLOQ S50 has helped Telia keep track of who has access to what with features like time-restricted access, instant granting and revoking of access rights and real-time audit trail reports. Security is underlined with a TLS-protected client-server communications encryption of sensitive data.

“At Telia, we take security very seriously, and we love mobile solutions. With iLOQ’s S50 mobile access management solution, we have already saved millions of euros compared to a traditional solution. The system basically paid for itself in no time at all, and the savings will only increase in the future.”